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96, 4 E. 1, STAT. 2, CORONERS- the attendance of some physician practicing in the county or city where such jury shall meet, to examine the body and testify in the premises, and by the succeeding sections a fine is imposed on him if he refuses to at- tend, and a fee allowed him if he performs the service. By the Stat. 1 & 2 P. & M. c. 13, s- 5, o. v. it is provided that the coroner upon any inquisition by him found, &c., shall put in writing (he effect of the evidence given to the jury before him, being material, and shall certify the same evidence together with the inquisition, &c. He is also to bind the witnesses by recog- nizance to appear to testify at the next Court. These however are under- stood to be those witnesses who prove any material fact against the party accused, R. v. Taylor, 9 C. & P. 672. Inquisition and return.—When the jury have brought in their verdict the coroner is to make up the inquisition, which with the evidence is to be re- turned to the Court. But if the inquest be adjourned, and on the day ap- pointed the Court be not formally opened and further adjourned, the pro- ceedings drop, the Court is dissolved, and everything else done in the in- quest is corarn non judice and void; and this is so even if the adjournment takes place only for the purpose of drawing up a formal inquisition, after the jury have in substance agreed upon a verdict; for until the inquisi- tion is signed, any juror may alter his mind and change the verdict; and so if the coroner be ill the proceedings must commence de novo, R. v. Payn, 34 L. J. Q. B. 59. The inquisition must state what is brought in, whether mur- der, manslaughter, &c.10 It seems that all the technicality of an indict- ment is not required, (see R. v. Ingham supra.) but the cause of death ought to be substantially described; and therefore to say that a locomotive was driven against A "and feloniously cast him to the ground" was held to be insufficient, R. v. Stockdale, 8 Dowl. P. C. 537, and see R. v. Devett, 8 C. & P. 639; R. v. Nicholas, 7 C. & P. 538. The inquisition ought also to state 74 the precise time the act took* place which caused the death, and also the exact time at which the death took place, R. v. Brownlow, 11 A. & E. 119; and the place where the death happened, or where the body was found, and it would seem that if the full Christian names of the coroner and the jurors are not contained in the body or caption of the inquisition, they must be subscribed, R. v. Evett, 6 B. & C. 247; R. v. Bowen, 3 C. & P. 602, or if any of the jurors be marksmen, their marks must be attested, ibid. It is usual also for them to seal it, 1 East. P. C. 383. The coroner may inquire of accessories before the fact, but not of accessories after the fact, 2 Hawk. P. C. 78. It is said, too, that he may find any nuisance by which the death of a man happens, as if a man falls from a bridge out of repair 1(1 Where a coroner's inquisition stated that the cause of death was injury resulting from a fall into a quarry and that by the neglect of the persons named to fence, or caused to be fenced the said quarry, the deceased fell therein and that therefore the said persons named did feloniously kill the deceased, it was held, on rule for a certiorari to bring up the inquisition to be quashed, that, as the inquisition qualified the finding of manslaughter by a statement of the ground of finding and that statement showed no legal ground for it, the inquisition was bad on its face and should be quashed- Queen v. Clerk, (1897) 1 Q. B. 370. |
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Alexander's British statutes in force in Maryland. 2d ed., 1912
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